What a nice dream... (The Bends - Radiohead)

Name: Boonoiy

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Product:	The Bends - Radiohead
Date:	07.10.01 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nostalgic to me, Great songs - catchy and meaningful

Disadvantages: Bit too depressing for some

Baby's got the Bends.......Oh no.

This is a really great album, prized above all others in my CD collection.

The songs are deep and meaningful and really catchy. The band themselves are a bit on the depressing side, all seem to point at inner despair of the songwriting team. The tracks vary from the jumpy to the heavily synthesized, even dancy but each one has its own particular charm.

Tracks (in order):
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Planet Telex:

The most dancy of the tunes and not the best to listen to, this really gets my vote as worst on the album.

The Bends:

From my most hated to my favourite song on the album. The bends has it all, it is a slightly surreal story of someone in a drunken stupour, feeling alone and useless - falls asleep on aeroplanes and the likes, it has great guitar licks, sounds almost heavy metal at times and is a great song all round.

High and Dry:

An acoustic song, great rhythm and mellow feeling, another great song of the album. The sad story of a man who has nothing really except his wife/girlfriend in his life - this is crumbling away and he's really sad that he's losing her, "Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry" is the chorus of the song and is presented as something of a plea to the partner. It's a feeling that a lot will have experienced, the fear of losiong something which, while once good has turned sour. A great song - real deep and meaningful stuff here.

Fake Plastic Trees:

Acoustic song #2. a great melody, still calming and lovely feeling - again with a desparately depressing story! The tale of a man geting slowly worn down by the drudgery of his life.

Bones:

CRAP - sorry but this is a really dodgy one, really poor rhythm, very bad singing and a tune you would not inflict on anyone - not the best of their work.

Nice Dream:

Acoustic (again) - a great tune, a
depressing song (see any pattern here?). A story of a man who dreams of popularity, he'd love to be liked and respected, asked out places and enjoy his friends, the dream is really nice, lovely feelings of happiness thet he never feels in his waking life.

Just:

Heavy guitars and loud voices, another of Radiohead's surreal songs. The story of - I really don't know, it's a great sounding track but you'll spend a while trying to work out what it's all about. Something about only having yourself to bklame for the stuff that's gone wrong.....?

My Iron Lung:

A story of a dying man, living and losing his faith to a happy bouncy (slightly rock) soundtrack. A great song and a welcome change to the acoustic ones which abound here.

Bulletproof...I wish I was:

Another of the dancy tunes on the album, not really to my taste usually but this is a great song, again depressing and meaningful. A man feels put upon by the world and wishes he could be free from hurt.

Black Star:

Rock and Roll - great stuff, depressing certainly buit a gereat tune you can jump about all night to. Heavy guitars and vocals.

Sulk:

"Sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn" - a heavyish song, with a message to the miserable people out there, pretty ironic really considreing the nature of the band.

Street Spirit (fade out):

An acoustic song again, slightly surreal with a great tempo and rhythm, the song is wierd in the extreme and tells the story of a man feeling pressed in and panicky - fading out.

Overall:
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For me this is the jewel in my CD case, it has a great mix of heavy and acoustic songs and has a lot of depressing, teen-angst type songs on it. The CD is cheap (down at £8.99 nowadays) and exciting, once you've heard it once you'll soon pick out the classics of the bunch and will never stop listening.

I lo
ve this album and would really recommend it to anyone.

Summary: